Well, the secret's out. Due to the slippery fingers of a number of book vendors around the country (who may yet pay for their lack of vision), the upcoming novel, Halo: First Strike, has hit the occasional shelf a tad bit early. While you may pick up the odd morsel here or there on the forum, we at the HSP have some big changes in store to hopefully coincide with the novel's release. Needless to say, we won't be spilling the beans on it just yet; not until everyone can get their equally filthy mitts wrapped around it ;)

Kaworu Nagisa (kanagisa@hotmail.com) has spilled the beans, drained the bucket, and dumped the nuts on Christopher Rowley's Starhammer. Many things to take note of here regarding its use as inspiration for not only the Vangy-Flood and the mote-like 343 Guilty Spark, but for also for rampancy, the name John, and even 117...

(This is by no means a substitute for reading the novel itself, which holds many additional surprises, and is very good. You may, however, not enjoy it quite as much upon perusing this post. You've been warned.)

On p. 241 of The Flood, it tells that the flood were kept for future research, and were known as well for their ability to take over other life forms, "even advanced life forms", which implies that the Forerunner(s) could be affected by the Flood which must mean that the Forerunner(s) were a living species, not some robotic creature(s) like some theories have told.

What is included in the phrase "advanced lifeforms" that is not covered by merely the descriptive phrase "life forms"? The Flood can only utilize organisms of sufficient mass and cognitive capability (the minimum necessary): Grunts, Humans, Elites, etc.; life forms. But what is the nature of the possible creatures implied under the expanding adjective "advanced", and do the Forerunner fit into this category? Does this entail cybernetic enhancement or silicon based life, or is it merely a means of distinguishing between Carrier-worthy hosts like the Grunts and Jackals, and more intelligent, viable Warrior/Worker species such as the Elites and Humans?

A while back, Wyatt Mustful†contended my theory that Halo was inside human space. He said that because space travel was so sketchy you could suddenly end up trillions of miles away, no matter where you're headed.

That seems a bit off to me. I think the inaccuracy of space travel is better compared to a musket. If you fire a musket in London†at a target 100 yards away, chances are it won't hit the target you wished, but†it certainly won't end up in Beijing. So while exact days may be difficult to use in determining how far Halo is from REACH, it†still seems likely it is extremely close to humans.

Keyes does comment that Human jumps have been known to be off by "hundred of thousands of kilometers" (P.295), but not trillions. (The original post on this subject is here.) Cortana did have a human star chart match however, at 86.2% no less (FoR, p.336); she had a previously known system to compare with the results of her calculations...

Doesn't anyone find it weird that when Keyes first finds Halo, Cortana knows its called Halo and the planet's name is Threshold with a moon, Basis? This means that Humans have either been there, or seen it through a telescope. And it's kinda hard to miss a gigantic ring between a planet and it's moon.

...On The Pillar of Autumn, when you get to the bridge and see the captain, after talking to him you can look at the screen behind him. And if you look carefully, you can see a schematic of a section of the ring, or maybe its the whole ring, but it definitely is there, and in the small box the schematic is in, the name "Halo" is visible. Now, to memory, the first time we find that the ring is named halo is when we rescue Captain Keyes in T+R.

The Halo Story Bible has this to say about Halo 04 (as recorded in the PC Strategy Guide):

The name "Halo" is derived from Covenant battlefield transmissions,
translated by Cortana. A more literal translation would be "Ring of Heaven" or "Ring of the Gods." Halo orbits a large gas giant (Earth Survey Catalogue Number B1008-AG, nicknamed "Threshold"), suspended at the Lagrange point between the planet and its largest moon, Basis."

This, however, may possibly aggravate speculation regarding the practical meanings of the name "Threshold"; that it is/contains a "gate", door, portal, etc. What could the Humans have known about this planet and moon before visiting, and without a more extensive knowledge of the system's contents and operations?

We know that there are many "Halo's" throughout the universe, and that one sets off a chain reaction. We also know that there are similarities between the Covenent and the Forerunners. What if the covenant were "told" by the forerunners to guard and protect Halo and Forerunner tech. This would explain why they are so eager to keep humans out, and maybe why they are trying to eliminate humans in order to protect the halo from us. It makes sense, the covenant learned that we would want to investigate and possibly use halo to our advantage [or accidentally release the Flood] if we found it.

At the time that this theory manifested itself the first time, two things were not known or as widely accepted: 1) That the Covenant had indeed made their own way to Halo 04, entirely independent of Cortana and the Pillar of Autumn (and had been there for some time before the Human's arrival), and 2) that Halo 04 actually lies in a system previously noted and documented by the Human race.

These two items lend a certain amount of credibility to this theory. If it is true however, how would the Covenant have learned that we had catalogued the Halo 04 system in the first place. Did Humanity have a previous contact with the Covenant prior to the events of Harvest? I hope we didn't accidentally... ::gulp:: ...call them names...

Rather than looking ahead to new characters that are yet to be introduced, we could probably†find a far more simple explanation for the mysterious Miranda.

We know for a fact that the Bungie crew have their own names for each of the levels, and don't even remember the real names half of the time. So couldn't Miranda simply be Bungie's pet name for Cortana?

It would certainly sit well with the theme of brutal, painful betrayal.

Another great possibility (though I am curious how she would manage to "push" John into a hole...). There has been a broad range of intriguing, and hopefully insightful, speculation on this 'Miranda' so far. Now, if we could only get some confirmation...

a couple weeks ago i started obsessing over Joyeuse, the third sword mentioned on Cortana's (the swords) inscription "I am Cortana, of the same steel and tempur as Joyeuse and Durandal, and the other sword made by Munification (who made Cortain and Durandana) Sauvagine. Because i'm cool like that. And i also have been wondering if ever a third AI comes into play (sauvagine and cortain both belong to same person).

But back to why i emailed you. In my searches for mythological swords, i came across a sword named Mirandoise, a very very famous sword you may have heard of. Its also called Excalibur. It's also suppost to be the only sword equal in strength to Duranadana.

Mirandoise just reminded me oddly of our elusive Miranda. Call it a hunch.

The quote that brought all this Miranda speculation up was the following by Joe Staten, from the X03 video:

There was a scene which will go down in the untold lore of Bungie in which Miranda strapped a bomb to the Master Chief's back and shoved him down a hole, and it was this horrible scene of betrayal. Jason was going through a rather difficult breakup at the time - I think that might have had something to do with it.

We certainly know that Bungie has a penchant for naming characters after mythological swords, but will we ever know any more of this story than this one tantalizing glimpse? Untold lore, indeed! ;-)

Much as we love the game, and as much as we give credit to the dialogue and its creators, there nevertheless are a few lines in Halo that consistently elicit groans from sharp-eared Story enthusiasts. Stalwart geezer Miguel Chavez checks in with his impressions of one of these lines.

"I'll try Sir. But it looks like these Covenant worked pretty hard to lock it down."

Can we finally lay this to rest? On the one hand there are the realities of making a 'cinematic game' have a smooth and continuing rhythm. If the marines did encounter a door that was truly locked down with a visual equivalent of everything but the kitchen sink, the whole cutscene would've been much lengthier and tedious. But the whole point of that sequence is to GET YOU inside so you can see the terrible fate that awaits our fellow marines, and scare the bejesus out of you in the process.

Secondly, who's to say Covenant tech is not all that plain to see to the naked eye? The door could have the most massive encryption/krazy glue seals known in the universe. But covered under the nice smooth finish of Covie-Plastic(tm).

And finally... let's go over what he says again. If you break it down to the essentials, and then work it back up again to with a little extra length, it may better read like this:

"I'll try to open this door, but I'm looking at what the Covenant *WORKED* pretty hard to lock it down with, but since I'm saying it in the past tense and the verb is WORK, that doesn't mean they actually SUCCEEDED. But still, it's the most I've ever seen them *TRY* to lock one door down. Shouldn't be a problem with this mini-Cortana-like device I just happen to have here next to my smokes. Have any pancakes, btw?"

Okay, okay, we won't give Pandor... er, Mendoza a hard time about the apparent difficulties with the door anymore. I suppose it would have been nice after all if the Covenant had tried a little harder to lock it down. You know, with the virulent scourge of the galaxy behind it and all. Then again, it's not like the Covenant are known for their sense of galactic responsibility, right?

...So a soldier whose entire unit has been destroyed, his homeworld glassed, appears after apparently being MIA with his ship. He says the PoA has been destroyed by him, that there is a bunch of mutant zombies in a selection of Halos across the galaxy and that there is a mysterious species called the Forerunners who seem to have created their very own method of wiping out life in the galaxy. Oh and there's an AI called 343 Guilty Spark who's practically indestructable.

Who else can see the nice medical orderlies coming for dear old Master Chief?

This whole "responsible for the survival of Humanity" deal might not be all it's cracked up to be. What about the parades? The testimonials? The recognition of service to all mankind? Oh, wait. I suppose we better actually save humanity first. ;-)

Now, weren't we on some kind of important mission before all that other nasty stuff came up? ;-)

I was just perusing your page again, and something hit me: What if the Flood have already found their way off Halo by the time 343 Guilty Spark introduces himself to the Master Chief?

The evidence:

"Greetings. I am the Monitor of installation 04. I am 343 Guilty Spark. Someone has released the Flood. My function is to prevent it from leaving this installation. But I require your assistance. Come. This way." -- 343 Guilty Spark, in the final moments of the level named after him.

Analysis:

If 343 GS' function is to prevent the Flood from leaving installation 04, then it stands to reason that he would busy himself in doing so, correct? Yet during the library, he is nearly always with us, and mentions where he is going and what he is doing when he is not present. As well, it is the function of the Reclaimer, not 343 GS, to trigger mass sterilisation. The process of going through 343 GS (the level) and the Library, is part of the secondary protocol, not the primary function.

It stands to reason that only after failing in his attempts to contain the flood on the ring would 343 GS initiate the mass sterilisation protocol. Of course, reason may fly out the window as we realise that 343 GS is a few slats short of a train track.

Hence, I believe that at one point 343 GS was busy with preventing the Flood from leaving Halo, but that point was far in advance of where things stand when the Master Chief is brought into the Library. The entrance of Mobutu in the equation only makes matters worse: if 343 GS had initiated the sterilisation protocol with a completely different person (perhaps) hours before, it stands to reason that the Flood are already that much further away from the ring.

Of course, we must question the meaning of "leaving this installation". Does it mean that the Flood had gained access to the Truth and Reconcilliation or Pillar of Autumn, which had not really 'left' the ring, or did the Flood manage to board another ship and get away?

Good point. We blew up and (supposedly) destroyed whatever was on Halo, but, since the primary weapon never fired, anything that was already off of the ring is out there somewhere... waiting...

Seeing as how the Covenant glass every human world they find. Why don't they just glass Earth like any other human world? Instead of sending a giant ground assault force. I think the Covenant think that Earth has some super secret powerful artifact or relic...

There is the subject of those pesky symbols in the rocks on Sigma Octanus IV. They were significant enough to factor into whatever Cortana did to get them to Halo, who's to say there wasn't something similar which lead the Covenant there in the first place? Or Reach, for that matter? We know they seem to worship the Forerunner and prize Forerunner technology, might there be something else they're after? Time will tell. ;-)

After thoroughly reading the story section, I was somewhat surprised by the belief that the Forerunner were a benevolent race that maintained a living Flood culture, possibly out of regret for nearly eradicating them. However, the very nature of everything we are presented whilst treading on Halo depicts a frighteningly contradictory image.

First off, we have the Sentinels and 343 GS. Why would a race so intent on the survival of the Flood (GS: "...their survival as a race was dependent on it. I am glad some of them have survived to reproduce", assuming that's the stance you take) focus on producing defense systems optimized for the purging of Flood Rangers, the most defenseless Flood form? This seems somewhat against commonly accepted Forerunner ethos. While I accept they probably used only in the event of an outbreak, aren't the Flood supposed to be maintained in a stasis-like state? The only possible cause of an outbreak would be the introduction of foreign vectors into the environment, something that was clearly not intended to happen (furthermore, the Sentinels are all but worthless against other forms of Flood. Why combat the Flood with weapons that are ineffective against their dangerous forms?). Furthermore, the Forerunner submit the complete authority and control over Halo and the Sentinels to an unstable and psychotic AI. Surely the Forerunner with their god-like technologies had experience with AIs, and could have anticipated 343 GS' erratic and dangerous behavior. Why allow a 'rampant' AI such a degree of control? What is concerning is if 343 Guilty Spark is in fact based on a Forerunner behavioral pattern, much like how Cortana et al are procured from human brains. A perplexing race indeed, particularly if most have a similar disposition to insanity as 343 GS.

An entire race of 343 Guilty Sparks. The mind reels.

This does bring up an interesting point about the Forerunner, though. The Covenant obviously worship them, and there is a perception that Forerunner technology is far superior, but GS is not the most stellar of examples, is he? Or, is he?

Then we have Halo 04. What kind of benevolent race would allow the construction of such a device? While it could be used for the 'good' and 'worthy' purpose of preventing catastrophic Flood outbreaks, it seems more like a barbaric tool of destruction. Halo seems more like a deterrent, much like nuclear weaponry during the Cold War. Think about it. You are an alien race oppressed by the Forerunner. You form an uprising and plan to overthrow your malevolent masters. However, the masters happen to have this weapon, capable of effortlessly slaughtering your entire force (and every allied race with sufficient biomass). To me, Halo does not seem to be an effective method of containing the Flood (is it necessary to forceably remove all food and water in a city because of a cockroach infestation at Joe's Steakhouse? Especially when the cockroaches can survive without food for a considerable amount of time). Halo would likely have a different purpose to simply eliminating high-biomass lifeforms to prevent the spread of a parasite. Granted, a highly dangerous parasite, but if it so dangerous, why save the Flood from extinction? As has been stated before by Jonas, perhaps the Flood were a weapon, a deterrent in addition to Halo? The threat of releasing the Flood would certainly keep the enemies of the Forerunner in line. So what is the fortress world really *for*? And besides, doesn't 'fortress' entail a militaristic nature of its builders? The Forerunner seem to be more of a galactic terror than the Flood...

As has been pointed out, the Flood make a terrible deterrent. They are slow to start and virtually unstoppable once they get going. A race that had never had any experience with them might not understand the threat until it was too late. But it's also been pointed out that the Covenant have had a long history with the Flood, and they didn't seem to have learned their lesson, did they? Could the Forerunners have simply been so benevolent that they couldn't bring themselves to eradicate the Flood?

Francisco de Miranda was, among other things, a Venezuelan revolutionary. He has been called a precursor (forerunner) to later revolutionaries, such as SĂmon Bolivar; Miranda betrayed his cause after suffering some defeat, surrendering himself and the men he lead to the Spanish Imperialist forces. For this, he was arrested by his own men before the surrender could take place, and given to the Spanish, who housed him for the last four years of his life in a dungeon in Spain.

A man who was a "forerunner" and a traitor who nearly destroyed the Venezuelan revolution for independence. It sounds strikingly familiar to the Miranda which we know, who, according to the X03 video, straps a bomb to the Master Chief's back and shoved him down a hole.

As he goes on to say, this also seems to be another tie in to the history of Mexico, Central, and South America, whose Aztec (and Incan) inhabitants have come up more than once throughout the story's course.

Those pesky gas-giants keep coming up again and again as well. One might think that the Forerunner had a certain fixation with them...

What if the Covenant are after our pyramids? In the level, "AonCR", and "Two Betrayals", the pyramid you're on houses the control room. What if our pyramids have some secret like that?

Egyptian... or Aztec? Forerunner glyphs and star charts have repeatedly reminded various individuals of Aztec script. Perhaps the Covenant's goal lies deep underground within the Yucatan peninsula; perhaps they are here to take more permanent measures against an old enemy we know little of...

Could the Forerunner be the mythic Jjaro? Could the Flood be the dread W'rkncacnter?

Pathways into Darkness makes it clear the the W'rkncacnter simply cannot be killed.

"It died there, or it came as close to dying as these things can, and drifted aimlessly for millions of light years before striking the Earth."

Similarily, one hell of a good reason for keeping the Flood is that for whatever reason they simply can NOT be destroyed. (Or, perhaps the Flood are manifestations of the W'rkncacnters dreams? "..populated by horrible manifestations of the dead god's dream.") Some people have suggested that destroying Halo may have had some unforseen ramifications on the cosmos at large. Perhaps our destruction of Halo has freed a (the?) W'rkncacnter.

If the Flood can survive the vacuum of space in some form, we surely have released them, at least within the Halo 04 system for now...

Now on to my point, the Flood are a powerful parasitic race living as far as we know in Halo's research/containment facilities, well, until you and the Covenant came along. Now we have the W'rkncacnter, the evil of all evils from Halo's epic predecessor Marathon. Also like Flood, the W'rkncacnter have large numbers and can live practically anywhere. Take this nice little snippet from Marathon's Story Page for example...

Now for the facts....

"The W'rkncacnter only appear in this single terminal in Marathon 2 but from this small piece of text it is possible to gather a few facts.

The W'rkncacnter are more than one. The line "The sun burned them..." infers more than one. The W'rkncacnter are powerful. Powerful enough to survive being burnt by Lh'owon's sun. Yet not as powerful as Yrro who seemingly flung them there. The W'rkncacnter are enemies of the Jjaro (this is based on the fact that Yrro is most likely a member of the Jjaro race)."

Resilient buggers aren't they..

"According to the legends of a thousand worlds only a few of which are still habitable, the W'rkncacnter are those things that live in chaos, creating it around them. At the beginning of the universe, they were unmistakable in their entities, but as time has gone by, their existence has become difficult to detect among the chaotic elements of the universe, hidden in stars, trapped in storms, forever looking along the event horizons of black holes. Setting one free in ordered space is difficult and insane. "

Now if I remember correctly from another post on the Flood someone pointed out that the Flood must have come from a "high gravity" place so to speak or at least are able to survive there in one form or another. Plus it's said by Guilty Spark that the Flood change the atmosphere to fit their needs and the Flood do cause A LOT of chaos in battles and Halo as well...

Now a little S'pht/Forerunner/Halo relating:

"This station was built by the progenitors of the S'pht and used to make Lh'owon into a paradise. It is capable of generating multiple gravitational fields..."

Like Halo... hmmmm anyway...

Unfortunately in Marathon (sequels or otherwise) we don't see the W'rkncacnter, we just hear of it and its destructive power. Maybe the Flood were a spin-off of the W'rkncacnter or are one and the same.

If not literally connected, they undoubtedly hold a similar niche within both the Halo and Marathon universes.

About the MC's age that was stated a while ago, 41 could be a good age for military combat. Think about it, in 500 years, humans may be living to like 200 since we are living longer and longer. Many many many years ago, humans ONLY lived to be around 40 or 50. So 41 could actually be young in the 26th century.

I recall reading in TFoR that the Pillar of Autumn has 3 Pelicans. Yet when Reach is attacked, 2 Pelicans are used: one is used to take the MC and Co. (Blue Team) to the orbital station to destroy the navigational database on the ONI yacht. This Pelican is destroyed resulting from C-12 on its nose being detonated to kill off approaching Covenant forces.

The second Pelican is used to take all of the other Spartans (Red Team) down to Reach to defend the reactor complexes for the Super MAC guns. This one is (assumed) destroyed when Reach is bombarded with plasma. The MC and some marines escape the station in a separate Pelican, but this leaves an interesting question: if the Pillar of Autumn had three Pelicans, and two were destroyed, while one new one is brought back, why are there four in Halo: The Flood, and multiple in the game itself? Only two Pelicans (unless more docked with the Autumn which were not mentioned) were on the Autumn when it escaped Reach.

Indeed, Red Team's Pelican, piloted by a Flight Officer Mitchell, is thoroughly destroyed, as we witness in the First Strike preview. The number of Pelicans seemingly stowed aboard the Pillar of Autumn had already swollen to apparently grotesque proportions when source materials were compared. Thanks to Mr. B's common sense, we can now add 2 more to that list. (Well 1, if you count the extra Pelican John returned in from Gamma Station.)

Wado finally brings the truth to light... Although, to be perfectly honest, the processes involved in sorting and prioritizing are substantially more complicated than he discovered during his day of HSP dumpster digging. Our mails are our children. Abandoned and often confused children, yes. But ours nonetheless. We love our children...

We know the Covenant used a small probe attached to the UNSC destroyer Iroquois to find Reach. How then, did they single out Reach, knowing nothing more then its location, was a major military stronghold? The reason this seems odd is that the Covenant sent over a dozen ships to attack Sigma Octanus IV, which was the site of information on the location of Halo. They knew Sigma Ocatanus IV had valuable information, but they only new Reach's location from the probe, so why send a fleet nearly thirty times larger? Could the Covenant have been passed information or did the probe hack into the UNSC computer and communication networks at Reach? Something just doesn't seem right.

Shane, you may be onto something. The FoR specifically states that the probe only takes pictures of stars, and then, via a memory crystal shot through Slipspace, relays the information to the Covenant. How else would they have known about Reach, its defences, or its importance; known that it was anything more than a mere supply station? The Flood (p.95) does give mention of Covenant spies (Covenant, AI, or Human we never discover). Did the Covenant have some other record or tip that lead them to Reach in such great numbers?

The forerunner seem very similar to a race in Iain M. Banks' book, Consider Phlebas. The race is called the Culture and is made up of many different human sub-species. They, like the forerunner seem to, rely on advanced sentient A.I.s to support their civilization. In the book, they live on a vast amount of orbitals (in other words halos) spread all over the galaxy as well as on asteroids and small moons. When threatened, they just shifted the populations and the orbitals. This may be the reason why installation 04 took the shape of a ring, and why a sentient monitor was left in charge of the installation. The Culture's main objective was to keep its residents occupied. It might be that the forerunner kept the flood just so they could give themselves something to do.

Maybe the flood escaped in a different galaxy that was occupied by forerunner and because of the outbreak the installations were placed in a galaxy that showed no signs of intelligent life;- our galaxy. Maybe we just managed to evolve in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Again, while the thought of our galaxy as a mere buffer zone may initially offend, keep in mind that we, or any other intelligent species, may have not existed to dissuade its use as such.

Studying the Flood... a hobby for the whole family! What else is an enlightened, galaxy spanning race to do with their time? ;)

After reading the story summary for Halo: First Strike, I was left wondering something. How, exactly, would there be any survivors still left on the debris of Halo?

Here's what I mean: assuming you survived the explosion, and subsequient shockwave, you would have to deal with a little lack of atmosphere. That is, unless each individual section of the ring world had its own life support system and accompyning power source.

I guess one could argue that someone could just run inside one of the numerous structures that populate the area and shut the door behind them, and then hope someone comes to rescue them before they run out of air or heat. But, however, not all of the structures even had doors, and the ones that did almost always had the man-sized ones, which, in my opinion, would not make a good barrier against Outer Space.

And what about the capacity of the rescue vehicle? I'm sure that the Longsword can only hold so many people. Not to mention the fact that large chunks were sent all over the place, and if there was a time limit before the survivors became non-survivors, the Chief would have to make some pretty quick and ethical decisions about where to search and who to save.

Indeed, time is never on our side. With so much debris, how could he ever be sure that there were no other survivors hiding out elsewhere? The difficulty of the decision would only be compounded by the pressures of cargo space at his disposal, the need to find a feasible ride home (that Longsword just will not do), and available time, either of those stranded or because of whoever else may still be within the system. Watching. Waiting.

Cortana says that she took down four out of "a dozen Covenant battleships". TWELVE! the Truth and Reconciliation was possibly one of the four she killed (or perhaps an additional one that was disabled), presumably the others floated in orbit or landed. so there can be two possiblities. they ALL landed and were destroyed. or they stayed in orbit, survived the destruction of halo and just blast masterchief into small suitcase pieces in his puny weak longsword. hmm?

Hey, the Chief does need a ride home. It would be terribly impolite of the Covenant not to offer the opportunity ;)

At the end of Halo, 343 Guilty Spark is shown to be alive, in space. There has been speculation about what he will do now. After realizing that your plan to neutralize the Flood was successful, he would hold no grudge against you, being an AI. It may be against protocol, but the objective was accomplished, and he would quite possibly be grateful for avoiding what is an admittedly messy sacrifice: wiping out all life in the galaxy along with the Flood. My evidence for 343 traveling to Earth is this.Look at the third sound file. It speaks of an easter egg that didn't make it into the game, of 343 paying a visit to the Marine's medical tents, which are, of course, on Earth. Admittedly, it's just an egg, not a major story event, but do you really think that Bungie would put in an egg that contradicted what actually happened in Halo history?

Could be a subtle hint, or just plain tomfoolery. Either way, there is little doubt that 343 Guilty Spark will be showing up again in the near future, but just what his standpoint will be on the whole "you blew up my installation" point, considering that the objective of neutralizing the Flood was theoretically still accomplished, could be quite interesting.

343 Guilty Spark says: "a maximum range of...", and this (coming from a program) would mean a variable range, and would explain why he wants you to hurry. The faster you activate Halo, the smaller Halo's weapon's (whatever that is) blast range is. Therefore, less animals (and plant species;) ) are killed.

Destroying all sentient life within a variable range surrounding the Halo, depending on the amount of time since the Flood escaped... A far more tactful plan of action.

I was playing through Two Betrayals yet again when I noticed something suspicious. Right after you destroy the Sentinals in the Control Room, Cortana says that we have to hurry and destroy the pulse generators, before the Monitor activates "Halo's final weapon."

Wait... final weapon? That implies that Halo has other weapon(s), as well. So what the heck is it/are they, and why isn't Cortana telling us about them? (Is she pursuing her own agenda, now, after she's been inside Halo's computer system and possibly figuring something out? Maybe something she finds to be so dangerous that she can't let even the Master Chief know what it is?)

Its true. Besides the Sentinels, there seems to be nothing to stop the Flood from leaving Halo, demanding that the final weapon be used; not a very proactive "containment system". If 343 Guilty Spark truly is showing some symptoms of insanity, is he drunkenly grasping for the Howitzer when his bare hands would do? What could these other containment tools be? We never did get that tour of the facilities we were promised... ::sigh::

All right here is my rundown. Its 1:11 in the morning so my ideas may sound pretty dumb by the time you read this. I was reading some about John-117, and it seems that everyone sees 1 chapter and a 1 verse. I cracked out my own bible, and turned to John 1:1-7. It talks about the beginning of the World, that God is the Word, the Word is God and the Word is with God. It kinda warms you up, talking about the beginning. Now, there are many Johns in the bible, one being John the Baptist. John the Baptist was the FORERUNNER of Christ. John 1:6-7 says:

God sent John the Baptist (7) to tell everyone about the light so that everyone might believe because of his testimony.

Now this clearly points out that he is a forerunner. This next idea does not link to the first but here goes nothing. I decided to get freaky and take John-117 and turn it into John 1:1+7 = John 1:8 John 1:8 reads from the New Living Translation:

John was not the light, but only a witness to the light.

What I'm seeing in my worn out brain is John-117 is NOT the forerunner, but a witness, or an precursor of the forerunner. This can help show about GS calling MC a reclaimer, a forerunner, or descendant of one reclaiming their own facility.

A precursor to the Forerunner, who in turn are making straight the way for who? Perhaps some may yet come whose Class 12 airlock clasps John is not worthy to tighten...

The quills on the hunters back are about as mysterious as anything. Why are they there? When the hunters aren't looking for you they stand at full height and their quills fall back. Then they stand strait up and quiver when the hunter contracts back for a few seconds. I speculate that these could be good for sensory items. Particularly for detecting fine vibrations in the air, like movement or breathing. I think it would be redundant for them to be a defensive mechanism, and I don't think they're for communication (although that is possible).

Halo: The Flood does point out the apparent use of the "razor sharp spines' as weapons, much to the surprise of many. Personally, I think the Hunters could stand to learn how to perform a quick backhand sooner than utilize their 'back-stabbers' :P

Who is to say that they have no, one by one, eliminated every race they have encountered until the last small group of survivors, before converting them to their religion and allowing them to exist again, to fill a new function? Maybe the humans are intended to be technicians, pilots, et cetera. They certainly have a tendency to work well with tools.

As Icechains55 (Icechains55@aol.com) also submitted, these tactics are reminiscent of the ancient Romans' "join or face the sword until you are weak enough to be compelled to place yourself under us" policy. While this has been the case for at least three present races of the Covenant (we know that Grunts, Jackals, and Hunters have been dominated through force), the current genocidal campaign against Humanity appears to have a little more... zeal; "...the vermin deserved only extermination". Still...

In away I see the Forerunner like a race in a old Star Trek Next Gen episode. In the Star Trek episode the Humans, Klingons, Romulans, and I forget who else, discover an ancient artifact that they assume is a super powerful weapon. They without trust work together to uncover the artifacts mystery and eventually come to a key planet. There they discover that the artifact isnt a weapon but a piece of Ancient(in the cosmic scale) History. A hologram of sorts appears and tells the assorted species the tale of its race; how they had lived so long as the only sentient species in the galaxy that they eventually started to die, as though the species had become genetically stagnant. They then created all the sentient races in the galaxy before they disappeared forever.

as we all know, Bungie connects everything to the number seven. If the "seeding the galaxy" theory were true, and the Forerunner did set up certian paths for each race to follow and then unite, then if you include the "new" races (i.e. Brutes and Prophets) you end up with seven species that the Forefunner made.

The Sevens have it! I guess we have no surprises to look forward to in the sequel... shucks ;)

One was (after watchin the xo3 video for halo 2) was that the one guy said: "we want the ruins to really look like there was an epic battle that took place 900,000 years ago..." I think mabey the forerunners might have fought some other ancient group, and may have created the Halo's in case they lost.

Like... the Flood? ;)

Speaking of Starhammer by Christopher Rowley... we were, weren't we? No? Well, we should have been ;)

I've been thinking about how the Flood could be made to be less volatile or hazardous to the rest of sentient life. Quite a few strings have touched upon the potential "good" of the Flood, and whether or not their survival is simply the result of Foreruner sympathy (strange sympathy though,†to imprison an intelligent†species on a structure designed to starve them to death). Taking into account all that has been said about MC and his Reclaimer status, plus what we know about the Flood (and their all-consuming hunger)†I came up with a theory, and maybe I'm off on a tangent here, but bear with:

As a result of his augmentation, MC has "suppressed sexual desires", i.e., does not feel the need to reproduce. (In addition, simply trying to do so while inside of MJOLNIR would be awkward at best.) So my question is this: if the Flood were given robot bodies (or cyborg, if you will)†to occupy, ones that not only quenched their hunger for knowledge (via AI), but also contained them from reproducing so recklessly, would they still be a threat?

CJ, you've got spunk. A tantalizing possibility. But could the Flood's hunger EVER be satiated? I doubt we would be willing to turn over a SPARTAN to find out...

I noticed 343GS values records of history and past events very valuable. He says so on occasion in the game. He gabbles about how valuable the information on human history he aquired from the PoA was. Perhaps he sees these records more valuable if the subjects are terminated. Now my story tieing theory has a few assumptions.

1. There was a†somewhat small population of Forerunner†on Halo. I am also guess machines they made did the labor of building "Halo" for them.

2. 343GS betrayed the Forerunner population on Halo. Perhaps the Forerunner used sentiels or weather controls or the alike to kill the Forerunner.

I believe that perhaps 343 eliminated the Forerunner on Halo†so his records of their existance become much more valuable. He seems to brag about what he knows all the time in the game, but never goes very in depth into what he knows. He just points out FYI's here and there. He doesn't want to give away his precious records ;) Perhaps nothing interesting has come out of the Flood and he wants them to create a story for themselves then eliminate them as well (activating Halo) and then making another valuable history of an event.

---

343 Guilty Spark seems to me to be very similiar to Superman's "real" archrival, Brainiac. Brainiac was a computer/AI i believe created by Supermans father on Krypton. When people began to think that Krypton would eventally blow up because of a bunch of earthquakes and volcanoes, Brainiac said that it would not (even though he knew it would). Therefore, everyone died on krypton except for superman and brainiac (whose escape is simliar to 343 gs's after the credits). He also shares 343 gs's love for knowledge and how valuable it was; he would find out everything he could about a culture by befriending it and acting as a god, then destroy it so the information he found would increase in value. I guess you could call brainiac a "rampant" enitity. Maybe this means that 343 gs lied to the forerunner about how dangerous the flood really were, and then they were wiped out by the flood.

The Forerunner, wiped out through the deceit of 343 and his quest to manipulate further events to categorize and document? Possible, but I ask you, is his the voice of a murderer?

îExactly 101,217 local years,ë the Monitor replied cheerfully, îmany of which were quite boring. But not anymore! Hee, hee, hee.ë

Amidst the hectic arrival of his new "guests" he certainly seems to be up to something. However, like a cat, it is difficult to tell if 343 has us right where he wants us, or is simply full of complacent, ignorant bliss ;)

What scares me about the Flood is that when they steal knowledge and memories, they actually remove that knowledge from the host. Certainly, if the Forerunners knew this, they would have a motive to design a way to transmit information via DNA or something that the Flood cannot steal.

I think that mabey the reason (which would be a great plot twist for Halo 2) why the covenant found Earth is that remember the space probe Pioneer 10? Pioneer 10 (click here for more info) that "carries a famous gold plaque--an attempt by humans to communicate with other beings should the spacecraft be found by aliens during its journey through deep space."

we could have baisiclly screwed ourselves for the covenant finding Earth! if it is already 10 Billion miles out now from 1983 (only 30 year from the launch) think about 600 years from now!! it decribes how to get to Earth! Makes a good story to me!

Just had a few comments in response to Weasle's post on the HSP on Nov. 7.† I've never noticed that Keyes is wearing two silver bars in game.† Technically, the rank insignia would be correct if the Halo Universe was using Army, Air Force, or Marine rank structure.† In TFoR,† however, Admiral Stanforth gives Keyes the four stripes and a star of a Naval Captain.† The Admiral is also sporting admiral's stars later on in the book.

The way it works in today's military is just how Weasle had it in his post.† In everything but the Navy (and Coast Guard), rank goes 2nd Lt. (O-1), 1st Lt. (O-2), and Captain (O-3) which is two silver bars.† In the Navy, you have to start as an Ensign, then up Lt. (junior grade, or J.G.), full Lieutenant (which is also two silver bars), Lt. Commander, Commander, then Captain (O-6).†

Having more sense than the Navy, the other service branches (including the Air Force ;) ) only have the one group of rank insignia.† The Navy has those goofy gold stripes in attempt to confuse the otherwise brilliant civilians at Bungie.† Those stripes go on dress uniforms, and are what Stanforth gave to Keyes on the Iroquois at Sigma Octanus.† The more common insignia of gold and silver bars, oak leaves, eagles, and stars are used by everyone else, hence the minor screwup I've spent too much time talking about.†

Too conclude, Captain Keyes should have a little silver eagle on the shoulders of his flight suit to designate Captain.† But Bungie blew it.† Not a big deal.† It all goes to show they should have asked me how Halo should have been done before they went and did it all by themselves.

While playing through Halo I was often perplexed by the name given to the parasitic lifeforms known as the Flood. Why would Bungie give these creatures such a seemingly random name? After reading through different little speculations and how bungie enjoys bible references, it hit me. Maybe the Flood was not necessarily a part of the forerunners or even a creature found and studied, but really a method of wiping out the wicked developed by the Forerunners.

The nature of the Flood and the rapid growth of their population would indicate that their name is, indeed, apt. It would seem that Cortana got their name from the Forerunner databanks, but ponder this: The Forerunner, an impressive galactic (universal? ;-)) power, felt sufficiently awed by this parsitic species to name them as such. How about you? Think the Flood deserve such a title? ;-)

Just wanting to get something off my chest. I find Cortana's choice of words interesting in Silent Cartographer: "....We can't proceed unless we can disable this installation's security system."

Cortana instructs you to disable this installation's security system. You do so. A cutscene shows a previously locked door open. But in doing this, did all other locked doors in the installation unlock? More specifically, did Cortana make you unlock every security door in installation 04?

To put a few phrases into context:
"I'll try Sir. But it looks like these Covenant worked pretty hard to lock it down." So how does a handheld door decoder so easily force open a security door engineered by the most advance race in the known universe? Either it contains a dedicated code-breaking AI (of Cortana prowess, no less), or...the Covenant tried to lock it down, but the security system was disabled, and they failed to stem the spread of the Flood.

"....no, that can't be. Oh, those Covenant fools...they must've know, there must have been signs!" What signs? Were all the doors in the Flood containment facility wide open, allowing a mass of Rangers to pour out? Perhaps not, but if an Elite or two opened a door and strolled in, the Flood would have found a satisfactory vector or two and used them to open other doors and infest the rest of the facility. Which explains, "We've got contacts...lots of them...but they're not covenant..." Contacts before the apparent release of the Flood by Jenkins and his crew. Many Flood have already found a means to escape.

This could provide an explanation for the apparently Flood-infected Hunters in AotCR, though the Flood would have to have spread extremely fast (a feat not beyond them), as the security systems of the containment facility have been disabled and the Flood has already found a means to escape the containment facility. Also, taking into account the fact that the control room seems to be on the opposite side of Halo to the map room, and thus presumably would have taken Echo 419 some time to get there ... the time frame seems reasonable enough.

While admittedly this theory doesn't explain the security doors in the Library (perhaps they are not connected to the rest of the network, thus the Monitor must access them himself. A reasonable enough security measure), it does go a long way to explain the circumstances in which the Flood were released (though this could be explained in Halo: The Flood. I haven't read that yet).

I suppose this could also add more fuel to the theory of Cortana being an 'escaping convict'. Cortana essentially released the Flood, or at least used you to do it.

One flick of that little switch on the Silent Cartographer. One little flick...

The first one is mass. Consider the size of Halo. Halo has to be made from incredibly dense material, or it would not survive out there. Multiplied by the sheer size, where did all this mass come from ? There have to be enormous patches of space out there devoid of mass. Since the area where Halo is located still contains plenty of it (a gas giant and a moon for starters), all this mass would have been transported to the construction site (not nessecarily phisical transport, may have been through an energy conversion cycle or whatever).

Secondly, energy. The construction energy balance alone would be mindboggling. This energy did not come from mining the gas giant. It would have been depleted many times over. The basic idea of a ringworld is for it to be constructed AROUND a sun (which would make it WAY bigger). Since Halo is not, it would have to rotate to be able to have a day/night cycle thus periodically exposing evrey area to sunlight, gathering energy (the large beams could be used to transfer energy from the 'day' side to the 'night' side. just a thought).

Internal size. All service tunnels are 'human' sized. Flood as well as Covenant are essentially human sized. Bipeds. All creatures are bipedal, walking upright. The whole control panel layout is tailored for manipulation by human sized bipeds with 'hands'. Does this tell us anything about whoever constructed this?

The blue energy pulses as an energy equalization or distribution system is unique, perhaps for both other systems as well as climatic control.

And for human-sized bipeds nonetheless... well, now that we've narrowed that down ;)

Peter R., concerned this time with the Forerunner's title, or lack of it.

writes:

Forerunner(s). That's no name for a race. It's a term used by later generations of intelligent life, who have first forgotten all about the existence of another form of sentient existence that came before, and then rediscovered the existence of something that came before, but haven't quite figured out everything about it. No live species would cale itself 'forrunner(s)'. That term would be reserved for whom/whatever came before them. Since not even GS seems to know what they're called. one could argue he's from a different timeframe altothether.

Or, no name was thought to have been required, by either 343 Guilty Spark or by the Forerunner themselves. As the Elites so steadfastly hold, a name implies legitimacy; in another sense, it also implies that there is something else that the named object is being contrasted with and discerned from. If the Forerunner were possibly the only sentient/sapient race at one point in history, perhaps naming themselves seemed entirely superfluous?

Although it is unlikely that Cortana's labelling them as such is entirely arbitrary and unfounded...

An aging post by Brandon questions the nature of the relationship between the Covenant and the Forerunner's good creation. Why can't at least somebody get along with somebody else?

what we have learned about the covenant is that all there technology is based on the Forerunner, 343 gs and the sentianals are part of Halo and it is mentioned that they are part of the Forerunners technology, so if they are forerunner why were the covenant trying to destroy them? i can't figure it out, wouldn't the covenant like surrender to them, or join together?

Indeed. The Prophets would not risk damaging Halo 04 by firing at the Pillar of Autumn, and yet the Covenant readily dispatch the Sentinels. Were the Covenant themselves betrayed somehow or, as mentioned in a later post, are the Sentinels viewed as mere watchdogs; annoyances or tests to be circumvented for the greater good? And they wonder why no Covenant members were apparently trusted as a 'Reclaimer'...

ok so i read this book by William C. Dietz; it was called Legion of the Damned. it wasn't that good but had many similairites to HALO. the warriors were called TROOP II's. need i say more. but what interested me was the Hudathans (nicknamed geeks). they were also wiping out humanity across the galaxy. they also were very technologically advanced. but what intrested me was the reason for them attacking humanity. they were basically paranoid. there own planet's sun was going to explode, so they moved out of system. but since they were so paranoid, even though they are utterly invincible, they destroy all those that could cause †them harm †before they even have a chance to do so. the geeks have a lot of similairites to the covenant, maybe the same reason for attacking us. they also declared it† a religious war to make it "just".

Umm.... Guys, I 've got an idea bout how 343 got all his info about the PoA and her systems. Alright, here I go. If the Cole Protocol was used there would have been nothing left right? I was reading the Fall of Reach again a couple days back and i go to the part where Capitain Keyes is on the Pillar of Autum for the first time. On page 273 Hikowa mentions that the Pillar of Autum has more that one AI.

"We've got more than that sir," Hikowa replied "Cortana is running the shakedown and supervising Dr. Halsey's modifacations to the ship. We have a second AI to handle point defense."

"Really?" Keyes was surprised; getting a single AI was tough enough these days. Getting two was unprecedented.

This shows that there were two AI's on the PoA before she went down!!!!! This also shows possibly where GS got the information about the ship. The Cole Protocol was probably carried out, but the Captain forgot about the second AI!!!! He said it himself! Getting one was hard, getting two is impossible. In all the excitement, he forgot...

Beowulf, or perhaps a lowly door operator? It is mentioned on page 290 of The Fall of Reach that with the Covenant blitzkrieg, there wasn't going to be time to boot up the second AI. As if that could stop a Bungie AI from making an appearance ;)

As we know, very few things are casually dropped around the Bungie camps. If you trip on it, it was probably put there for more than a laugh at your expense...

Gamesradar.uk recently posted a rather lengthy article (soon to appear in Edge magazine, for those who would like a hard copy) discussing the making of Halo and hinting at some of the progressions to expect in Halo 2. Jaime Griesemer gets quite a few words in edgewise...

In a discussion of favourite enemies, Jaime mentions the Flood Warrior with Active Camo found in The Maw's armoury. This, he says, "indicates that the Flood are intelligent, and know how to use equipment, and aren't just dumb alien monsters." Given. However, he goes on to point out that while they did not intend for the Flood to retreat and throw grenades (thus imitating Covenant tactics), the "AI was originally intended to be every bit as complicated as the Covenant, but we ran out of time implementing behaviours and they ended up being a lot simpler and straight forward... we didn't get a chance to develop all of the characteristics of the Flood that was going to make them not only different and very interesting to fight." What can be expected from the Flood tactically that has not already been exhibited? Ambushes? Further utilization of and adaptation to surrounding objects? The real-time infection of their foes? Hmmm...

Also dropped to the proverbial cutting room floor were more omni-parasitic centered embellishments: "Flood-encrusted objects" and heavily besieged Covenant forces. "We were able to do some of that, but weren't able to implement nearly as much of the environmental changes as we wanted. We wanted it to look drastically different." Now, just how different of a landscape, what is the exact nature of the Flood's atmospheric change, and what would these Flood encrusted objects be exactly... ?

In any "Making Of" the focus inevitably turns towards aspects trimmed due to time constraints. Jaime Griesemer had mentioned, once upon a time, forces unseen plotting in the game's shadows, their motivations only visible to the wary. His comments in Gamesradar.uk seem to expose what he had hitherto only hinted at:

"However, the Prophets were originally around in Halo 1, but we ended up taking that part of the story and moving it into the background. If you use your imagination, you can spot where they were and what they were doing during Halo, and we'll probably reveal more in Halo 2."

The wording is so very similar; he seems to simply fill in the blanks. Mystery solved?

For those in the public incapable of taking hints (or just find themselves lacking the will to start reading) Harry further embellishes the details of an oft recommended series of novels. Spoilers, if you are in to that sort of thing...

Among the Science fiction that Bungie says has influenced them is the book Ringworld by Larry Niven. In Ringworld's sequel we discover who built the Ringworld. If you are plannig on reading either of these books(and they both are very good and worth your time) then you might not want to read this as it will proberly contain spoilers.

Well in the books the race that created the Ringworld are the "Pak" a technologically advanced but warlike race. Well the Pak have 3 growth stages child, breeder and then Protector(this is also the title of another Niven book which describes the Pak, this is also a very good book and worthwgile read).At some point the Pak stopped making war with each other long enough to send out a colonisation ship. Eventually this ship reached the solar system SOL. However the Protectors attempts to "evolve" the breeders into other Protectors failed as the plant they used to transform them, wouldn't grow correctly in the soil of the planet they landed on. So without their plant "tree-of-life" no more Protectors could be made. Eventually the not-quite-sentinent breeders evolved into us, human beings.

So maybe the forerunner are like the Pak and we,the humans, are their less intelligent cousins. Although perhaps rather than having a missing growth stage perhaps the forerunner were something like the MC; genetically changed to be stronger, faster, smarter than the average human.

Perhaps. How closely this inspiration has been followed in Halo is left to be seen. (Don't worry. He hasn't ruined all the story's twists; there is more than enough detail left to satiate a bout of weekend reading :)

It has been hypothesised by many before that Humans could be descendents of the Forerunner, one reason why the Covenant hate them so much. Whilst reading through Halo: The Flood, the following events caught my attention.

1. Chief says that he always 'feels' like he knows which buttons to press on Halo's control consoles and describes it as an instinct like the "fight or flight" response.

2. When the Chief gets into the long snow valley sections on Halo. He says that he felt a strong feeling that he was finally home. Another connection to the human 'instinct' (or should I say forerunner instinct) of being familiar with Halo.

3. When the sentinels first appear in the swamp, the marines first instinct is to shoot at them. Master Chief however says to wait and see what they do. This is a major change in thinking as throughout the Fall of Reach and The Flood he constantly is taught and uses the "kill now, ask questions later" maxim. Again this is another example of his instinct regarding Halo's technology.

These support the views that either humans are derived from the constructors of Halo OR that the Forerunner implanted information into the human psyche i.e. Covenant get the technology, humans get the knowledge to use it.

So, in the same way that Guilty Spark recognizes our armour as a Forerunner (or similar) derivative even though it is second generation (Mjolnir is based in turn on Covenant tech), can the Master Chief (or other Humans even) utilize Covenant tech more efficiently merely because it is, itself, based upon Forerunner design?

It may also be possible that the physical and (more than likely) mental augmentations (such as the neural implant upgrade) done to the Master Chief enabled him to ascend to a state of subconcious awareness and tap into his repressed...well...Forerunnerness.

Does this mean that others as well may be able to utilize Forerunner controls? We never get a chance to see any other Spartans, or even Humans, use Covenant/Forerunner tech... well, except for the elevator on Halo 04's Alpha Base, and the Human usage of Covenant weapons, and Marines that pilot Banshees and Ghosts with ease, and Keyes' piloting of a Covenant dropship, and ... ;)